Perhaps Tiny and Earl Grey are simply enjoying each other and the season in the spirit of Henry James: "Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

I have lectured Bird Dog before that his preference for dogs over cats springs from the following:

(The dog) "is often spoken of...as the friend of man, and his intelligence and fidelity are praised. The meaning of this is that the dog is man's servant and that he has the gift of an unquestioning subservience and a slave's quickness in guessing his master's mood. Coupled with these traits, which fit him well for the relation of status--and which must for the present purpose be set down as serviceable traits--the dog has some characteristics which are of a more equivocal aesthetic value. He is the filthiest of the domestic animals in his person and the nastiest in his habits. For this he makes up with a servile, fawning attitude towards his master, and a readiness to inflict damage and discomfort on all else. The dog, then, commends himself to our favor by affording play to our propensity for mastery, and as he is also an item of expense, and commonly serves no industrial purpose, he holds a well-assured place in men's regard as a thing of good repute. The dog is at the same time associated in our imagination with the chase--a meritorious employment and an expression of the honorable predatory impulse. Standing on this vantage ground, whatever beauty of form and motion and whatever commendable mental traits he may possess are conventionally acknowledge and magnified...(part of their value lies as) items of conspicuous consumption..."

Thorstein Veblen "The Theory of the Leisure Class" pp 78-79)

I personally love dogs, but I also love cats. It's a both and. Each magnificent in their own way.